Nostalgia & History > Warbonnet Wednesday: In your face at De Soto

It’s Topeka’s Railroad Days. A short excursion run has its power changing ends at De Soto to run back west to Topeka…

1. AT&SF 508 is the new rear unit in this now-westbound train.

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2. & 3. The consist is backing down to an easy joint.

4. Maybe one of the most unusual “in your face” images we’ll ever see… :^)
Four original Kodachromes slides by William A. Gibson Jr at De Soto, KS on September 4, 1993.
Now in the James T. Wilson collection.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Jim Wilson (jtwlunch)
Remembering the late Art Gibson, aka ‘wag216’

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Cool photos!

Thanks for the great memories, Lance!  Art apparently stayed aboard the train for some photos after we arrived in DeSoto and parked the train in the west end of the DeSoto siding.  The Santa Fe crew ran the two locomotives around the train and then lined themselves into the west end of the siding.  Meanwhile, most of the passengers were off the train and enjoying a picnic lunch and a magician show in a city park which is about a block south of the tracks.  After a little more than an hour, the passengers reboarded for the return to Pauline, which is a few miles railroad west of Topeka near the Topeka Railroad Days festival site at Forbes Field.  This was the second trip on the first day of the 1993 Topeka Railroad Days festival.  The day's first trip was a morning roundtrip from Pauline to Lawrence.  We finished the day with an evening roundtrip from Topeka to Lawrence which included a catered meal off the train.  It was a long day for those of us who volunteered as car hosts!

Bob St. John
Topeka, Kansas